Individuals and businesses today communicate through a variety of messages including electronic mail (including e-mails with video or voice attachments or “instant messages” such as AOL™ instant messages), pager messages, facsimile (fax) and electronic voice mail, document transfer, file transfer and structured data transfer.
In many cases, a multi-user server located in a remote location and accessed electronically over a network manages such communication. Such servers not only control access to personal data belonging to a plurality of users, but they also act as repositories for such personal data, either temporarily or over a significant period. Consequently, issues of security, scalability, dependability and concurrent access to data are significant.
Single-user programs for managing such variety of messages are known, but such known programs do not provide full remote access via the Internet to management of messages, documents, data files and contact information. The use of the Internet is desirable for numerous reasons, including the common use of the Internet Protocol as a communication standard, the general availability of electronic devices that are Internet-enabled and the cost savings of using the Internet. Full Internet access is desirable because message, document, data and contact management users may want to access their message and contact management system from a plurality of locations and/or plurality of communication devices (e.g. lap top, cellular phone or hand held computer etc.). Full remote access permits the receipt of messages at any location on any type of communication device, with remote access to functions of the message management system such as address books, security settings, rules (e.g. automated response), text-to-speech functionality etc.
It is desirable to provide a system, computer product and method that does not require the use of a multi-user server. In other words, it is desirably to provide the “unified” capability of managing the variety of information described where there is no 3rd party service provider who acts as an intermediary between the user and entities with whom the user communicates. This results in a reduction in service fees charged by such 3rd party service provider. It is further desirable to provide such a system, computer product and method that is flexible, permits remote access to personal data, and provides security of such personal data.
Such a private communication portal is disclosed in co-pending patent application Ser. No. 09/595,533 assigned to 01 Communique Laboratory Inc. (“Co-Pending Application”).
In this disclosure, by “private” what is meant is that the communication portal is dedicated to a user rather than multiple users as is the case with 3rd party intermediary systems described above. It should also be understood from the outset that in referring to “private communication portal”, the word “communication” is used in accordance with its broad technical definition. In particular, “communication” for the purpose of this document means exchange or accessing of any information, including information formats, using predefined protocols understood by communicating entities. It should be understood that for “communication” to occur, there is no requirement for a human user. “Communication” can in this way be contrasted from “messaging” which is generally understood to relate to communication between more than one human user.
Also, by “portal” what is generally understood is a means for facilitating communication from point A to B. More than one interconnected computer or process may co-operate to provide a single “portal”. For example, a first computer or process comprising the “portal” may provide means for locating B at least once. Thereafter, communication between A and B may be facilitated through a second computer or process independent of the first computer or process.
In operation, the present invention provides a private communication portal for remotely managing and accessing messages, as described herein. However, it should be understood that messages are only one form of data that can be communicated or accessed in co-operation with the present invention. The invention provides means for operating a private server as a communication server for a variety of purposes, including video monitoring. For example, the private communication portal described herein provides means for accessing and managing such data remotely, such as forwarding images detecting movement to an observation station.
One problem of providing such a private communication portal system, computer product and method is integrating same with wireless devices. At the date of this patent application there were a number of different wireless devices. First, there are WAP-enabled cell phones. These devices have a small text display and allow the user to set up a connection session to the Internet. Connection speed on existing wireless networks is relatively slow (approximately 9600 bps) and generally only a limited amount of content can be viewed at a time. Furthermore, WAP-enabled cell phones generally have numeric keypads only and therefore data entry is laborious. Second, there are 2-way pager devices. These devices of a second type generally establish “session-less” connections to the Internet, i.e. they send and receive messages without the overhead of logging in, establishing credentials, etc. Examples of such 2-way paging devices include Glenayre's @ctivelink™ and RIM's Blackberry™ pagers. A third type of wireless device is known as a Wireless Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) or wireless terminal. These devices provide a small screen and permit inputting of text. Some wireless terminals include an ASCII keyboard. The wireless terminal operates similarly to the WAP-enabled cell phone, except the wireless terminal can generally support a richer user experience, e.g. colour screens and audio output and generally have more processing capability than WAP-enabled cell phones.
The WAP-enabled cell phones, paging and 2-way paging devices and wireless terminals referenced above are collectively referred to as “Wireless Devices” in this disclosure.
The above referenced Wireless Devices are commonly associated with a known wireless network. Communication with such Wireless Devices occurs via such wireless networks. Therefore, where appropriate the use of the term “Wireless Devices” in the sense of for example sending a message to a “Wireless Device” implies the use of the related wireless network.
The private communication portal referred to herein permits connection with such Wireless Devices and their related networks. For example, when a message is received by the private communication portal, a notification can be sent to the Wireless Devices, in a manner that is known. For example, this notification can include information regarding the identity of a caller who has left a voicemail at the private communication portal. It is desirable to be able to elicit a response from the private communication portal using a Wireless Device. For example, where a user is notified by means of a Wireless Device that “VOICEMAIL RECEIVED FROM X”, it is desirable that user be able to engage a “OBTAIN VOICEMAIL” function at such Wireless Device. In response to such function, it is further desirable that the wireless network be able to deliver a message to the private communication portal requesting that the private communication portal call the telephone number phone of the user and provide in such telephone call the content of the voice mail. Likewise, for a “FACSIMILE RECEIVED FROM Y”, it is desirable that the user may engage the “FORWARD FAX” function at such Wireless Device to request that the private communication portal call the facsimile number specified by the user and deliver the message to the facsimile device at that number.
Prior art solutions have been conceived for delivering the functionality described to Wireless Devices.
For example WinFax Pro 7.0™ of Delrina provided notification to pager functionality as early as November, 1995. This prior art product comprises a “RECEIVE RULES” function that permits forwarding of messages and/or notification to a pager device depending on certain conditions being satisfied, e.g. message arriving from a particular sender. Notification to the pager device is provided by this device by dialing up the paging service using a telephone network.
Another example of a prior art solution is FaxWorks™ by Global Village Communications from 1994. This computer product provided capability for forwarding fax messages and for sending receipt notifications to a pager device. This particular prior art computer product also performed notification upon receipt of a voice message or a fax message.
Another prior art solution is the Communicate!™ product of 01 Communique Laboratory Inc. which permits notifications to be sent to an alphanumeric pager. When a message arrives (in this case a voice message, fax or e-mail), this prior art computer product contacts a paging service and sends a short notification message to the specific pager informing the user that a message has been received. More specifically, when a message arrives (in this case a message is one of: voice message, fax or an e-mail) the application will contact a paging service and send a short notification message to the specific pager informing the user that a message has been received. In line with the technology of the day, this application used the dialup telephone network to contact the paging service. This prior art product also provides forwarding to an e-mail account by accessing the user's e-mail accounts and downloading incoming e-mail messages. It then forwards the e-mail to another account. Note that e-mail send and receive is achieved by dialing up to the Internet and connecting to the e-mail server(s).
Octal Unified Messaging (Lucent Technologies) is a large centralized server-based system that supports some of the message format translations, such as converting text e-mail to speech and text e-mail to fax. This system also supports pager notification of new messages.
Motivus™ from Veratium is a prior art server based product that allows users of mobile devices, such as RIM Blackberry™ pagers and Internet-connected Palm™ organizers to access messages and files stored in a Microsoft Exchange server. It also provides support for the Exchange calendaring feature.
A still other prior art solutions that addresses similar subject matter to the present invention are EudoraMail™ and EudoraWeb™ from Eudora. These applications are designed for the Palm™ handheld operating system. EudoraMail works in conjunction with a desktop component to synchronize data. Synchronization allows users to read, send, and delete messages from your desktop computer from your Palm device. Filters allow users to transfer a fixed number of messages or the most current messages to Eudora on your Palm device. Synchronization truncates messages above a certain size. Synchronization downloads messages on request. This priort art solution supports SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) and TLS (Transport Layer Security) for authentication of users' mail servers, and encrypted communication with those servers for data privacy. Users of this prior art solutions can launch EudoraWeb™ by tapping on URLs on a Palm™ device. EudoraWeb™ is a mini HTML browser tailored to the Palm™ environment. EudoraWeb™ supports a subset of HTML 3.2 features.
The prior art solutions discussed disclose means for notifying the user of a Wireless Device that a certain event has occurred at another location, such as the receipt of an email. However, they do not provide means for acting on such notification.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,226,668 issued to Silverman relates to a web messaging system that allows a subscriber to receive messages from a wide variety of multimedia sources. If a caller attempts to contact a subscriber but the subscriber is unavailable, the system will record the message in digital format, generate a web page and password, and send a web page identification and password to the subscriber via a paging medium. The subscriber can then access the web page, enter the password, and retrieve the message.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,844,969 issued to Goldman et al. discloses a communication system for remotely re-selecting and re-transmitting received electronic mail at a destination terminal to another destination terminal using a remote communication device, e.g., a two-way pager. The system includes an electronic mail server coupled to an electronic mail network, a backbone and an alert network. The electronic mail server receives electronic mail messages from the electronic mail network or from the backbone network. Each received mail message includes a sender identification, an email identification and a destination terminal. The server generates and transmits over the alert network a select signal and a message summary to the communication device when an email has been received from a destination terminal. A communication device stores the message summaries and displays them as a user scrolls the message summaries. The user through a keyboard in the device may select and revise a message summary by entering a new destination in the message summary. Using a send key, the user transmits the revised message summary to the server coupled to the destination terminal. The server in response to the transmitted revised message summary accesses a database to locate a copy of the received message or contacts and instructs the destination terminal to forward a copy of the received message to the new destination terminal via the server or an alternate server.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,978,837 issued to Foladore et. Al. provides for an intelligent pager that remotely manages an email server that receives email messages transmitted over an email network. Useful email messages can be identified by the pager and separated from the junk mail. The pager remotely controls the server to forward messages as directed by the recipient. The email server sends a summary of the email message to the pager over a different network so that the pager can select a forwarding destination for the message. The pager sends a selection signal to the email server which then forwards the email message to the selected destination. The email message can be forwarded by the server over another network, such as the public telephone network, to a computer or a FAX machine at the recipient's office, home or other destination.
The prior art solutions discussed support e-mail and browsing capabilities, but do not provide message or event notification and remote access of messages or events with a private communication portal from Wireless Device. The prior art solutions also do not provide a system, computer product and method for acting on message or event notifications at a Wireless Device that is flexible. In regard to this last disadvantage, there is a need for system, computer product and method that permits acting on message and event notifications from a Wireless Device notwithstanding changes to the source of the message or event notification.
Another disadvantage of such prior art solutions is the time delay between receipt of a message at a first computer and receipt of a notification at a Wireless Device. For example, with respect to a Wireless Device that is a pager associated with a pager network, the pager network generally comprises a pager instruction transfer means, such as a mail server, or more particularly, an SMTP server for communicating messages related to the operation of the paging networks, in a manner that is known. In the particular example cited above, the request to the private communication portal is generally communicated to the SMTP server, which in turn is communicated to the private communication portal by means of the Location Facility disclosed in the Co-Pending Application.
The private communication portal is generally connected to the Internet in a manner that messages received (by way of example) by the private communication portal are not provided immediately, but rather subject to a time delay, as is well known. In particular, in most known implementations of the private communication portal, such messages are collected, for example, by the Internet Service Provider's server computer by polling such server computer from time to time. This time delay is in some cases a consequence of technical limitations of such Internet access, or in other cases, a consequence of system resource saving procedures.
In providing the remote response using a pager network as described above, the time delay referred to can cause relatively significant inconvenience. For example, in the specific example provided, if a user of the pager device and private communication portal requires delivery of a voice mail immediately, relatively significant wait for such delivery may cause inconvenience.
Therefore there is a need for a private communication portal, and method of implementing the same, that minimizes the impact of such time delay. There is a further need for a private communication portal that delivers notifications of events to a Wireless Device, and supports action on such notifications. There is a further need for system, computer product and method for introducing services accessible from a Wireless Device.